Drug shows promise for patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia

Patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia may find interim results of new study encouraging. Ibrutinib, a drug targeting a protein diseased cells need to survive and proliferate, is showing promise in combination with standard therapies.

Interim results from a study not conducted at City of Hope suggest that, for patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia, or CLL, a new oral drug given in combination with standard treatment significantly reduced the risk of disease progression or death. Although the results are interim, not final – meaning the study and its analysis are not yet completed – the study itself is a randomized, placebo-controlled study, considered a marker of high-quality methodology.

City of Hope's Guido Marcucci, M.D., co-director of the Gehr Family Center for Leukemia Research, is watching the results of the study closely. He recently offered some measured perspective to other physicians in an interview with MedPage Today.

"The implications of this study are very broad, and certainly may impact how we will treat CLL patients in the next years to come," he said.

The new study combined the current standard of care for CLL – a combination of bendamustine and rituximab – with a new oral drug called ibrutinib. Ibrutinib targets a specific protein that disrupts the signals the cancer cells need to survive and proliferate. Patients in the study received up to six cycles of the standard treatment and were randomized to receive either a placebo or a dose of ibrutinib.

The combination of ibrutinib and the standard therapy reduced risk of CLL progression or death by 80 percent compared to the placebo group. The ibrutinib group also had a higher overall response rate to the therapy, with 83 percent of cancers responding to the treatment versus 68 percent in the placebo group.